Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Andrew McCarthy gives an impassioned defense of defending the country:

It was health care that nationalized the special election for what we now know is the people’s Senate seat. But it was national security that put real distance between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. “People talk about the potency of the health-care issue,” Brown’s top strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, told National Review’s Robert Costa, “but from our own internal polling, the more potent issue here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants.” There is a powerful lesson here for Republicans, and here’s hoping they learn it.

One of the great frustrations of the Bush years was the fact that the administration had strong national-defense and counterterrorism policies that it shied away from defending. On enhanced-interrogation tactics, for example, President Bush’s position resonates with most Americans: When the nation is under siege, nothing is more important than getting life-saving intelligence. And, particularly when we are dealing with terrorists who are trained to resist interrogation and exploit our legal system, we must aggressively interrogate them and keep them out of our legal system. The opposing position, espoused most prominently by Sen. John McCain, was counterfactual and incoherent. Senator McCain pronounced both that enhanced interrogation (which he called “torture”) never works (which is patently untrue) and that an interrogator might at most use it in a ticking-bomb situation (the last situation in which you’d want to use it if, in fact, it never works)....Scott Brown went out and made the case for enhanced interrogation, for denying terrorists the rights of criminal defendants, for detaining them without trial, and for trying them by military commission. It worked. It will work for other candidates willing to get out of their Beltway bubbles....The laws of war are the rule of law. They are not a suspension of the Constitution. They are the Constitution operating in wartime. The Framers understood that there would be wars against enemies of the United States — it is stated explicitly in the Constitution’s treason clause (Art. III, Sec. 3). The American people understand that we have enemies, even if Washington sees them as political “engagement” partners waiting to happen. Americans also grasp that war is a political and military challenge that the nation has to win, not a judicial proceeding in which your enemies are presumed innocent. The rule of law is not and has never been the rule of lawyers — especially lawyers we can’t vote out of office when they say we must let trained terrorists move in next door.

As for privacy, Americans are not as self-absorbed as ACLU staffers — who, by the way, reserve the right to search your bags before you enter their offices. If you fret about privacy, it’s Obamacare that ought to give you sleepless nights. The lefties who’ve told us for nearly 40 years since Roe v. Wade that the government can’t come between you and your doctor are now saying you shouldn’t be able to get to a doctor except through the government, which will decide if you’re worth treating — that is an invasion of privacy.

Obama punted on the economy and reversed the fortunes of the Democrats in 365 days.

He’s misjudged the character of the country in his whole approach. There’s the saying, “It’s the economy, stupid.” He didn’t get it. He was determined somehow or other to adopt a whole new agenda. He didn’t address the main issue.

This health-care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country. Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage. This is going to raise costs dramatically.

In the campaign, he said he would change politics as usual. He did change them. It’s now worse than it was. I’ve now seen the kind of buying off of politicians that I’ve never seen before. It’s politically corrupt and it’s starting at the top. It’s revolting.

Five states got deals on health care—one of them was Harry Reid’s. It is disgusting, just disgusting. I’ve never seen anything like it. The unions just got them to drop the tax on Cadillac plans in the health-care bill. It was pure union politics. They just went along with it. It’s a bizarre form of political corruption. It’s bribery. I suppose they could say, that’s the system. He was supposed to change it or try to change it....

Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things.

I don’t consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster....It’s very sad. It’s really sad.

He’s improved America’s image in the world. He absolutely did. But you have to translate that into something. Let me tell you what a major leader said to me recently. “We are convinced,” he said, “that he is not strong enough to confront his enemy. We are concerned,” he said “that he is not strong to support his friends.”

A few thoughts for Zuckerman: his vaunted "ability to connect with voters" was a media creation. He was treated as a rock star and his faults were covered up. He was given the "Tiger Woods Treatment" during the election when all his ugly side was ignored and his dalliances with the Left were covered up. But just as Tiger's wife could only stand so much, the American people have had enough.

It's bizarre to say that he improved America's image in the world when major world leaders don't believe he can confront this country's foes or support her friends.

What's most amazing is that the Zuckermans of this country deluded themselves while deluding the country and the world about who and what Obama is. These are supposed to be the "smart" people, the ones who see politics in the raw. It now appears that they are as deluded as teen-age girls screaming they adoration of a rock star.

Brown Wins the "People's Seat" in Massachusetts

This message goes out to every vulnerable Democratic Congressman representing a Republican or even centrist district – and after tonight, who among you is not vulnerable? It is a simple message: we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. The easy way is, you suddenly decide that you have a burning desire to spend more time with your families. So you don’t run for re-election, you walk off stage technically undefeated, and you go join a lobbying firm. The hard way is, you do run for re-election, and we pry you out of your seats.

We want to do this the hard way. We will enjoy doing it.

That’s your only warning. And remember: nobody is going to be able to save you. If the President, the DSCC, the DCCC, the DNC, the SEIU, ACORN, and the netroots couldn’t manage a win in Massachusetts… what do you think that they can do for you?

In many ways the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process. It is vital that we restore the respect of the American people in our system of government and in our leaders. To that end, I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated.

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Global Warming scam is starting to unravel faster. From the (UK) TimesOnline:

A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. ...

It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research....

The report read: "Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate."

However, glaciologists find such figures inherently ludicrous, pointing out that most Himalayan glaciers are hundreds of feet thick and could not melt fast enough to vanish by 2035 unless there was a huge global temperature rise. The maximum rate of decline in thickness seen in glaciers at the moment is 2-3 feet a year and most are far lower.

In live in Brookline, Mass., in a neighborhood so hopelessly liberal that cars have bumper stickers with messages like "Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Republican" and "I Think, Therefore I Don't Listen to Rush Limbaugh." The house across the street from me displayed a "Dissent Is Patriotic" placard all through the Bush administration. Local ballot measures to raise taxes ALWAYS pass. Michael Dukakis lives three blocks away. You get the idea. This place is so blue that red paint and crayons are only available on the black market. (Okay, I made up that last one).

Anyway, for what it's worth, in a walk through my section of Brookline yesterday, I saw Scott Brown signs in two front windows and two cars wearing Brown bumper stickers. That may not sound like much to readers in normal ZIP codes, but here in Planet Liberal it's off the charts!

On Tuesday, for the first time since I was old enough to vote, I will take part in a US Senate election whose outcome is not known to everyone in advance. I believe this is what most Americans call "democracy," and I'm looking forward to the experience!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Revealing Faith via Haiti

I like Kerry Dougherty, I really do. She is the grounded housewife and mom who writes a column for a truly awful paper, the Virginian Pilot (motto: "True to the Democratic Party in victory or defeat.") and who is both entertaining and insightful.

Today she took after Pat Robertson for saying that

…something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it, they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the French, true story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. . .

She called this statement “over the line.” I’m not entirely sure what line that was. She didn’t say. But if we assume that she was accusing Robertson of being terribly mean spirited I think we are on fairly safe ground.

Dougherty often refers to her Christian upbringing and faith, and I believe her. But there are (at least) two kinds of Christians: those who believe in a “Just God” – a Jonathan Edwards kind of God - and those who believe that “God is love.”

She says of Robertson, and I quote:

. I don’t pretend to understand the theological underpinnings to Robertson’s flights of fancy. But it seems that in his world, one of two things must have happened in Haiti this week:Either God wreaked havoc on these poor people to punish them because their ancestors climbed into bed with Satan. Or God wasn’t powerful enough to stop the devil from unleashing deadly mischief on his pals.

I can’t buy either one.

I’m surprised that Dougherty has not heard this story before . It’s widespread and a quick Google search of “Haiti's pact with the devil” brings up 52,000 references. I have heard it mentioned enough that I immediately knew what Robertson was talking about. And I’m not surprised that Pat Robertson has heard of it and used it to make his point. For an article that debunks this as a fable, there is an on-line article by a Haitian churchman at Black and Christian.com.

However, I want to specifically contrast Dougherty and Robertson’s theological view of Christianity. While I believe that Robertson may well have been taken in a by a fable, his analysis is grounded in a “just God” theology found in both the old and new testaments. If Robertson believes the story about a pact with the Devil, (and I believe that Robertson is a Bible believing literalist who believes in a God who is active in the universe today) his view is that of a God that punished His “chosen people” Israel for departing from his ways. Unless the God of the Old Testament has taken early retirement, it is entirely logical to attribute the horrors that have befallen Haiti – even before the earthquake – to a punishment for a particularly grievous sin: a pact with the Devil that explains the Voodoo practices of many in Haiti.

Dougherty’s theology is of a more modern kind. One in which God is a sweet and rather saccharine creator of the universe. Who loves puppies and little children, pick us up when we fall down and never-ever judges us or turns His back. This is the God who was referred to as “God the Almighty Patsy.” He’s the God who sent his Son to die for us on the cross in redemption for our sins … but since he is such a loving, forgiving Soul, it’s hard to figure out why He bothered.

Whose version of God exists we’ll know one day. However, Dougherty’s column is rather mean spirited in its own right since she compares Robertson to a drunk and a money grubber who doesn’t believe what he says but uses it to con the rubes out of their money.

What Dougherty does not quote is the next part of Robertson’s remarks which put a rather different spin on the issue:

… the Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is, is, prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands, uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come, but right now we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

Whatever your theology, I hope that we can all agree that bringing relief to the suffering people of Haiti is a worthy goal.

Barney "My Boy Lollipop" Frank issues his usual reasoned statement on the rumors that if Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts senate seat, his swearing-in will be delayed:

"That is the stupidest thing I've been asked in a long time. That is insane, the suggestion could only come from a demented right wing source," erupted Representative Barney Frank (D - MA), when asked by The Washington Times about what he thought of assertions that Massachusetts Democrats would stall the certification process should Mr. Brown win. "There isn't the slightest possibility of it happening---a way of doing it. That is conspiracy theory at its most contemptible."

Massachusetts's top election official says it could take weeks to certify the results of the upcoming U.S. Senate special election. That delay could let President Barack Obama preserve a key 60th vote for his health care overhaul even if the Republican who has vowed to kill it wins Democrat Edward M. Kennedy's former seat.Secretary of State William F. Galvin, citing state law, says city and town clerks must wait at least 10 days for absentee ballots to arrive before they certify the results of the Jan. 19 election. They then have five more days to file the returns with his office.

... the most striking thing about the debate was not that the very liberal Democrat and the not-especially-conservative Republican disagreed on the issues. It is that they are both viable candidates in a race too competitive to call. In Massachusetts!

When Ted Kennedy died five months ago, who would have guessed that the contest to replace him would be anything but a slam-dunk for the Democrats? Yet there was no slam-dunk on that stage last night, and the race certainly doesn’t feel like a slam-dunk now.

“It’s not the ‘Kennedy Seat,’ ’’ Brown has been reminding Coakley lately. “It’s the people’s seat.’’ Amazing thing is, he could be right.

A campaign theme of Martha Coakley, including television ads which started running yesterday, attacks Scott Brown for supposedly sponsoring a bill to deny medical care to rape victims.

In fact, Brown merely proposed a religious exemption which would exempt those with a religious belief against providing "emergency contraception" (the so-called "morning after pill" which prevents pregnancy) from having to do so provided they had a plan in place for the victim to get the contraception elsewhere at no extra cost.

If Coakley thinks this amounts to denying care to rape victims, then she needs to explain why she supports the Senate health care bill which has an even broader religious and "moral" exemption for abortions, even in the case of rape.

That is not a closeup of my chin before I shave. It’s Mars, a dune field in the far north; at latitude 83.5° to be precise, less than 400 km (240 miles) from the north pole. The eternal Martian wind blows the heavy sand into dunes, and you can see the hummocks and ripples from this across the image. The sand on Mars is from basalt, which is a darkish gray color. The red comes from much smaller dust particles which settle everywhere.

But what are those weird tendril thingies?

In the Martian winter, carbon dioxide freezes out of the air (and you thought it was cold where you are). In the summer, that CO2 sublimates; that is, turns directly from a solid to a gas. When that happens the sand gets disturbed, and falls down the slopes in little channels, which spreads out when it hits the bottom. But this disturbs the red dust, too, which flows with the sand. When it’s all done, you get those feathery tendrils. Note that at the tendril tips, you see blotches of red; that’s probably from the lighter dust billowing a bit before settling down.

The government already has financial control of most of the "poor" through welfare payments and entitlement programs. The suspicion is growing that they are now going to try to capture control of the middle class whose primary financial assets are in their retirement plans.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Denver, CO—Prior to Harry Reid’s comments about Barack Obama, President and CEO of Winthorp Enterprises, Inc, John Lynch has always promoted employees based upon their merits. However, Lynch started to reconsider one of his employees for promotion to Vice President of the company. According to Lynch, James Fennewick has worked in the mailroom the last two years, and is a “clean, articulate, light-skinned negro.”

“I never thought one way or another about James,” claimed Lynch. “But since Harry Reid pointed out that Barack Obama was a ‘clean, articulate, light-skinned negro,’ I’ve started looking at James in a new light. In fact, he’s so articulate; I should promote him to Vice President. If a ‘clean, light-skinned, articulate negro’ can be President of the United States, then James can be Vice President of Winthorp Enterprises Inc. Merit based promotions are so passé.”

Evelyn Mathrop—the retiring Vice President of Winthorp Enterprise, Inc—was initially hesitant, but now she agrees with the wisdom of President John Lynch in promoting Fennewick to fill her position.

“At first, I didn’t agree with Mr. Lynch,” declared Mathrop. “I was concerned for our other token, African American employee, Tuwanna Jones, but after Mr. Lynch pointed out that she was a ‘dirty, dark-skinned negro that spoke Ebonics,’ it all made sense to promote Fennewick instead of Tuwanna. I wish him all the luck in the world.”

White people are just looking for light, clean and articulate Negroes.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The UK Daily Mail published an article by David Rose illustrating the growth of ice at the poles, the "unusual" colder winter weather and the revelation that climate scientists are now coming out of the closet and talking about global cooling. Now that the global warming cabal has been exposed as hoaxers, those who were muzzled or afraid to speak out are now being quoted.

The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.

According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.

The "global warmers" are standing by their predictions. What else can they do?

"Exterminate white people"

Not long after the Ayatollah Khomeini announced his fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the British novelist suddenly turned up on a Muslim radio station in West London late one night and told his interviewer he'd converted to Islam. Marvelous religion, couldn't be happier, Allahu Akbar and all that.

And the Ayatollah said hey, that's terrific news, glad to hear it. But we're still gonna kill you.

Well, even a leftie novelist wises up under those circumstances.

Evidently, the president of the United States takes a little longer.

Barack Obama has spent the past year doing big-time Islamoschmoozing, from his announcement of Gitmo's closure and his investigation of Bush officials, to his bow before the Saudi king and a speech in Cairo to "the Muslim world" with far too many rhetorical concessions and equivocations. And at the end of it the jihad sent America a thank-you note by way of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear: Hey, thanks for all the outreach! But we're still gonna kill you.

According to one poll, 58 percent of Americans are in favor of waterboarding young Umar Farouk. Well, you should have thought about that before you made a community organizer president of the world's superpower. The election of Barack Obama was a fundamentally unserious act by the U.S. electorate, and you can't blame the world's mischief-makers, from Putin to Ahmadinejad to the many Gitmo recidivists now running around Yemen, from drawing the correct conclusion.

To be fair, George Bush had a problem defining the enemy rhetorically. He called it the "War on terror." Terrorism is a strategy, not an enemy. He backed off on identifying the enemy after his use of the term "Crusade" (a much more accurate term) was denounced by the punditry as unjust, criminal, stupid and counterproductive. So we were left with the "war on terror" rhetoric. However, despite his rhetorical retreat, George Bush fought the war gallantly and successfully.

More Steyn:

On Thursday, having renounced over the preceding days "the system worked," the "isolated extremist," the more obviously risible TSA responses, the Gitmo-Yemen express checkout and various other follies, the president finally spoke the words: "We are at war." As National Review's Rich Lowry noted, they were more or less dragged from the presidential gullet by Dick Cheney, who'd accused the commander in chief of failing to grasp this basic point. Again, to be fair, it isn't just Obama. Last November, the electorate voted, in effect, to repudiate the previous eight years and seemed genuinely under the delusion that wars end when one side decides it's all a bit of a bore, and they'd rather the government spend the next eight years doing to health care and the economy what they were previously doing to jihadist camps in Waziristan.

On the other hand, if we are now at war, as Obama belatedly concedes, against whom are we warring? "We are at war against al-Qaida," says the president.

Really? But what does that mean? Was the previous month's "isolated extremist," the Fort Hood killer, part of al-Qaida? When it came to spiritual advice, he turned to the same Yemeni-based American-born imam as the Pantybomber, but he didn't have a fully paid-up membership card.

Nor did young Umar Farouk, come to that. Granted the general overcredentialization of American life, the notion that it doesn't count as terrorism unless you're a member of Local 437 of the Amalgamated Union of Isolated Extremists seems perverse and reductive.

What did the Pantybomber have a membership card in? Well, he was president of the Islamic Society of University College, London. Kafeel Ahmed, who died after driving a burning jeep into the concourse of Glasgow Airport, had been president of the Islamic Society of Queen's University, Belfast. Yassin Nassari, serving three years in jail for terrorism, was president of the Islamic Society of the University of Westminster. Waheed Arafat Khan, arrested in the 2006 Heathrow terror plots that led to Americans having to put their liquids and gels in those little plastic bags, was president of the Islamic Society of London Metropolitan University.

Doesn't this sound like a bigger problem than "al-Qaida," whatever that is?

This country has a problem in that we know in our hearts who we are at war with, but political correctness has stopped our mouths. It is the brave few iconoclasts like Steyn who have the moral courage to state the obvious.

Andromeda Island Universe

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Who's Buying Our Debt?

There are things that make you go "Huh!"

There are some assumptions that are common and are simply wrong. For example, if you ask the average person who our biggest trading partner is, most would answer "China." They would be wrong; it's our frozen northern neighbor: Canada. Canada is also our biggest foreign oil supplier. But here's something that I bet do don't know: who is buying most of our debt?

Would you guess China?

You would be wrong. Thanks to PIMCO's Bill Gross (via Art Cashin) it's the US Federal Reserve.

Here’s the problem that the U.S. Fed’s “exit” poses in simple English: Our fiscal 2009 deficit totaled nearly 12% of GDP and required over $1.5 trillion of new debt to finance it. The Chinese bought a little ($100 billion) of that,other sovereign wealth funds bought some more, but as shown in Chart 2, foreign investors as a group bought only 20% of the total – perhaps $300 billion or so. The balance over the past 12 months was substantially purchased by the Federal Reserve. Of course they purchased more 30-year Agency mortgages than Treasuries, but PIMCO and others sold them those mortgages and bought – you guessed it – Treasuries with the proceeds.

The conclusion of this fairytale is that the government got to run up a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit, didn’t have to sell much of it to private investors, and lived happily ever – ever – well, not ever after, but certainly in 2009. Now,however, the Fed tells us that they’re “fed up,” or that they think the economy is strong enough for them to gracefully “exit,” or that they’re confident that private investors are capable of absorbing the balance. Not likely.

Various studies by the IMF, the Fed itself, and one in particular by Thomas Laubach, a former Fed economist,suggest that increases in budget deficits ultimately have interest rate consequences and that those countries with the highest current and projected deficits as a percentage of GDP will suffer the highest increases – perhaps as much as 25 basis points per 1% increase in projected deficits five years forward.

So what the Fed did was buy the Agency mortgage bonds for its own account so that the PIMCOs of the world would use the cash to buy treasury bonds. A swap, in other words, designed to get someone to buy the treasury issuance in the absence of foreign buyers.

This explains the call by some in Congress for an audit of the Federal Reserve. If it turn out that the federal government has not really sold the bonds that it issued, but bought them from itself, that puts the debt and the creation of money in a different light.

Unemployment increases in America and the rest of the industrial world.

For a while, the Associated Press seemed determined to make “unexpected” and its variants the most overused term in economic reporting. Today, they give their readers an unexpected shock by dropping the forced sense of optimism normally used in giving bad economic news in their analysis of today’s jobless report. Instead, Christopher Rugaber reports the obvious — that the loss of 85,000 more jobs is nothing but bad news, and that the 10.0% figure hides the rot underneath

As has been the case for the past 6 months of unemployment rates, the rate is being suppressed by the number of people who have completely left the job market. In this case, the actual number of jobs is a better measure of how we’re doing.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Ann Coulter on the ruckus caused by Brit Hume's invocation of Christianity.

Most perplexing was columnist Dan Savage's indignant accusation that Hume was claiming that Christianity "offers the best deal -- it gives you the get-out-of-adultery-free card that other religions just can't."

In fact, that's exactly what Christianity does. It's the best deal in the universe. (I know it seems strange that a self-described atheist and "radical sex advice columnist f*****" like Savage would miss the central point of Christianity, but there it is.)

God sent his only son to get the crap beaten out of him, die for our sins and rise from the dead. If you believe that, you're in. Your sins are washed away from you -- sins even worse than adultery! -- because of the cross.

"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:14.

Surely you remember the cross, liberals -- the symbol banned by ACLU lawsuits from public property throughout the land?

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Sacrifice

In days of old, the people came to the temple to sacrifice. They gave alms to the priests and gifts to the church. In that way the temple/church became rich and the priests wealthy.

So when I hear the Obamas speak of sacrifice, and then see their lifestyle, I am reminded of the priesthood of old who fattened on the sacrifice of those outside the priesthood.

The American Thinker’s John Dietrich reminds us of the Obamas idea of sacrifice: designer footwear, million dollar “dates,” $100 beef, veal dog food, thermostats set at orchid growing temperatures.

As of old, sacrifice is from the people to the priesthood who always and everywhere grow fat and arrogant.

The Obamas do not expect us to sacrifice alone. They believe that they have established a long pattern of self-sacrifice. According to Michelle Obama , one of the Obamas' first major decisions after graduating from college was, "Do I go to Wall Street and make money, or do I work for the people?" As we all know Barack, decided to "work for the people."…After attaining the White House, the Obamas have continued to sacrifice, with a notable example being their trip to Denmark in order to secure the 2016 Olympics for Chicago. Michelle explained, "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the president to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home."…Michelle attended a luncheon for the homeless wearing a pair of $540 Lanvin sneakers. On a trip to Russia, she was seen sporting what was thought to be a $5,950 VBH alligator manila clutch. The White House protested that she was actually carrying the $875 VBH patent leather clutch. This is perhaps another example of self-sacrifice. She has ordered a pair of thigh-high leather boots from Robert Clergerie, a famous French designer. Had Governor Sarah Palin made any of these purchases, she would have been criticized on the front pages of the major newspapers. Their treatment of Michelle Obama is considerably kinder. She is seen as a fashion icon.

For a couple with a preference for $100-a-pound Wagyu beef, it is inconsistent to claim that "we can't eat as much as we want." …. Axelrod is reported by the New York Times as describing the temperature in the Oval Office as rather temperate: "He's from Hawaii," Axelrod said. "He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there." The president's years in Chicago apparently were not sufficient to acclimatize him to the cold.

… Perhaps the pièce de résistance was a statement by Michelle after a party for the "first dog," Bo: "We had a really sweet celebration -- [Bo] got a doghouse cake made out of veal stuff and he had his brother Cappy come over and we had party hats." Poor Bo. I am certain that he would have preferred Wagyu steak.

Almost exactly ten years ago, I boarded a Northwest Airlines plane in Minneapolis. As I started toward my veal-pen seat in steerage, I saw the faces of the preboarded aristocrats in business class. But before I could glare at them with proletarian rage and envy, I heard a loud bang and felt a sharp pain on the top of my head. Everyone looked to see what the sound was; even the two flight attendants chatting like village women around the well broke off their no-doubt-vital conversation.

The source of the preflight disturbance? I’d smacked my enormous gourd of a head on a television hanging from the ceiling above the center aisle that hadn’t been stowed for boarding. I lifted my hand to my scalp and drew back a palm glistening with fresh blood.

The response from the flight attendants? A shrug from one and the faint hint of a chuckle from another. They went back to their conversation. Dumbfounded, I proceeded to my seat to nurse my head wound, fuming over the fact that customer service at even the most rancid highway-rest-stop taco joint requires providing a moist towelette for seeping head wounds.

Jonah is still a young man and he never experienced the joy of flying at the beginning of the jet age.

Let's see if we've got this right

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET· A JOB,· A DRIVERS LICENSE,· SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,· WELFARE,· FOOD STAMPS,· CREDIT CARDS,· SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,· FREE EDUCATION,· FREE HEALTH CARE,· A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON· BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE· THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY’S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH RESPECT· AND YOU CAN VOTE DEMOCRAT.

"YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF..."

1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor.2. You own a $3,000 machine gun, but you can't afford shoes.3. You have more wives than teeth.4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon "unclean."5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against.7. You consider television dangerous, but carry explosives in your clothing.8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.10. You've always had a crush on your neighbor's goat.11. Your cousin is president of the United States

President Obama’s meeting with his top national security advisers does nothing to change the fact that his fundamental approach to terrorism is fatally flawed. We are at war with radical Islamic extremists and treating this threat as a law enforcement issue is dangerous for our nation’s security. That’s what happened in the 1990s and we saw the result on September 11, 2001. This is a war on terror not an “overseas contingency operation.” Acts of terrorism are just that, not “man caused disasters.” The system did not work. Abdulmutallab was a child of privilege radicalized and trained by organized jihadists, not an “isolated extremist” who traveled to a land of “crushing poverty.” He is an enemy of the United States, not just another criminal defendant.

It simply makes no sense to treat an al Qaeda-trained operative willing to die in the course of massacring hundreds of people as a common criminal. Reports indicate that Abdulmutallab stated there were many more like him in Yemen but that he stopped talking once he was read his Miranda rights. President Obama’s advisers lamely claim Abdulmutallab might be willing to agree to a plea bargain – pretty doubtful you can cut a deal with a suicide bomber. John Brennan, the President’s top counterterrorism adviser, bizarrely claimed “there are no downsides or upsides” to treating terrorists as enemy combatants. That is absurd. There is a very serious downside to treating them as criminals: terrorists invoke their “right” to remain silent and stop talking. Terrorists don’t tell us where they were trained, what they were trained in, who they were trained by, and who they were trained with. Giving foreign-born, foreign-trained terrorists the right to remain silent does nothing to keep Americans safe from terrorist threats. It only gives our enemies access to courtrooms where they can publicly grandstand, and to defense attorneys who can manipulate the legal process to gain access to classified information.

President Obama was right to change his policy and decide to send no more detainees to Yemen where they can be free to rejoin their war on America. Now he must back off his reckless plan to close Guantanamo, begin treating terrorists as wartime enemies not suspects alleged to have committed crimes, and recognize that the real nature of the terrorist threat requires a commander-in-chief, not a constitutional law professor.

Blackwater Prosecutorial and Media Misconduct

Driven by pressure from the Left, including the editors of the Virginian Pilot – a New York Times wanna be in Tidewater Virginia – the prosecutors of the Blackwater guards set their victims up for prosecution despite evidence that was exculpatory.

To get an idea of the kind of editorial pressure that was put on the prosecutors, go to the Virginian Pilot Online website and search for “Blackwater.” The headlines that pop up cover eight pages and virtually demand that this “evil” “private army” and “conservative Republican” organization be stamped out with the utmost prejudice.

Blackwater HamptonRoads.com PilotOnline.comFrom wire reports The founder of Blackwater Worldwide acknowledged in an interview published Wednesday that he had helped the CIA with secret programs ...

Suit: Blackwater operating illegally in Iraq after contract ...Jun 11, 2009 ... The latest in a series of war-crimes lawsuits against Blackwater and its affiliated companies alleges that they continue to operate ...

Blackwater: On the Front Lines HamptonRoads.com PilotOnline.comA Blackwater helicopter flies over Baghdad in April 2004. The growing presence of private security companies is stirring up questions over objectives, ...

Richard Nixon got better press during the Watergate scandal than Blackwater is receiving in the MSM. But that’s just an example of the local media going after a local company. They do that same thing to Pat Robertson even though Pat doesn’t use guns.

Clear your mind of the crap that’s thrown by the Times and the Pilot editors with their agenda and think about the Blackwater case for a moment. Here is what they are accused of doing: while escorting embassy personnel in Bagdad they enter a busy intersection and for absolutely no reason at all they begin firing wildly managing to kill and wound several dozen people. Their motive? I dunno; just animal spirits? Desire to kill innocents? Cleaning their weapons? Crazed psychopaths? Want to get their names in the papers? Even the random shooters and the Pantybomber have their motives examined in the press, but I have yet to read in the Pilot or any other MSM organ a rational or irrational motive for the Blackwater guards to open fire in a crowded intersection for no reason at all.

For example, several prosecution witnesses testified in the first grand jury that the Blackwater convoy had been fired upon by insurgents.

“Malis testified that he chose not to present the testimony of these witnesses to the second grand jury because the testimony indicated that the witnesses were ‘hostile’ to the prosecution,” the judge wrote.

In another example cited by the judge, prosecution witness Matthew Murphy, another member of the Blackwater convoy, gave testimony in the first grand jury that was exculpatory to defendant Donald Ball.

Murphy said that although he stood near Ball, he never saw him fire his weapon and that he “wasn’t just shooting wildly,” if at all, the opinion said.

“The prosecutors redacted this testimony from the transcripts presented to the second grand jury, even though Malis acknowledged it was exculpatory and had nothing whatsoever to do with the taint issue,” Urbina wrote.

The judge added in a footnote: “[T]he trial team chose to test the boundaries of permissible use of questionable testimony and ignore the warnings of fellow prosecutors tasked with advising them on precisely these issues. In doing so, it skated over the line.”

Urbina also faulted the prosecutors for informing the second grand jury that certain incriminating statements from the defendants were being withheld. “It is reasonable to believe that the purpose of these disclosures was to color the grand jury’s thinking,” the judge wrote.

If I were the Blackwater guards, I may have a case not just against the prosecutors but also against the defamatory and near-criminal conduct of the media including specifically the editors of the Virginian Pilot.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Nudes

The 9/11 killers were mostly Saudi. But the Shoebomber was a British subject. So were the Heathrow plotters. And the Pantybomber was educated in British schools - first in Togo; then at University College, London - and there is plenty of evidence he was radicalized while in the UK. So three of the four circles of homeland security hell with which the public are tortured are British in origin.

That ought to prompt astonishment - and great shame in Britons. Yet Timothy Garton Ash, Hoover panjandrum and eminent British complacenik, wrote in The Guardian only three weeks ago:

Not all Muslims, all of the time, will be able to support all these minimum essentials of a modern free society. There is a real tension between some of the essentials (for instance, the equal rights and dignity of homosexuals) and what is habitually taught even in mainstream, conservative Muslim communities. But most British Muslims, most of the time, will support most of them.

Even if that's true (and it's by no means clear that it is), is that enough? I said a few years back that Britain had been so hollowed out by Islamic radicals that it was becoming Somalia with chip shops. Mr Abdulmuttalab supposedly got the ol' jihad fever while at university. I see The New York Times reports the remarkable statistic that one-fifth of students at British universities are Muslim. As Professor Garton Ash would say, most British Muslims most of the time will be most unlikely to self-detonate over most American cities. So that's okay, right? Up to a point. A poll by the Centre for Social Cohesion found that one-third of Muslim students in Britain believe killing in the name of religion is justified and are in favor of a global caliphate. That's a lot of potential airline tickets.

Our economy will recover. It always does. Every recession we have ever had in our 235-year history has resulted in an upturn. President Obama has already started to crow about some signs that business is picking up — in a recession made worse by his opportunistic policies.

But the real damage done by his taking control of our major banks and car companies (and now one-sixth of our economy with his health care grab), is that private capitalism, one of the great drivers of our country’s abundance for all of us, has been damaged.

A good example of "Crony Capitolism" is GE under the failed leadership of Jeff Immelt. Having seen the stock drop by 90%, Immelt decided that his only hope for keeping the corner office was to suck up to Obama and tie the fortunes of GE to government policies. Long time GE shareholders are dumping the stock. Few see the salvation of the company in the windmill business and "Cap-N-Trade." When you are running a business, you don't have much control over what Congress decided to do with you or your plans.

Obama has an Economic Advisors who stands to make billions for the company he is the CEO of if Cap & Trade passes. Should an economic advisor be giving advice to a President if the advice would certainly create a windfall of cash to the advisor’s company? Isn’t there some type of ethics violation in here somewhere? How about the deceit of the American people? It’s not that Obama or Immelt are hiding any of this, it’s that neither of them are telling the people that GE and other big corporations plus Wall Street will make billions and even trillions if Cap & Trade passes and it boils down to being at OUR expense.

Cap-N-Trade won't pass and Immelt's visions of billions from trading greenhouse gases is going up in ... smoke? He's hitched his wagon to a falling star and will fall with him. It's too late to turn loose.

The Country's in the very best of hands?

On Christmas Day, a gentleman from Nigeria succeeded (effortlessly) in boarding a flight to Detroit with a bomb in his underwear. Pretty funny, huh?

But the Pantybomber wasn’t the big joke. The real laugh was the United States government. The global hyperpower spent the next week making itself a laughingstock to the entire planet. First, the bureaucrats at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) swung into action with a whole new range of restrictions.

Against radical Yemen-trained Muslims wearing weaponized briefs? Of course not. That would be too obvious. So instead they imposed a slew of constraints against you. ...

Now, thanks to the ever more demanding choreographers of the homeland-security kabuki, it’s two, three, four, whatever. Look at O’Hare and imagine the size of airport we’ll need. And by then the Pantybomber won’t even need to get on the plane; he can kill more people blowing up the check-in line....And, just as the thug states understand they now have the run of the planet, so do the terror cells. A thwarted terror attack at Christmas is bad enough. Spending the following week making yourself a global joke is worse. Every A-list despot and dimestore jihadist got that message loud and clear — and so did American allies already feeling semi-abandoned by this most parochial of presidents. Expect a bumpy twelve months ahead. Happy New Year.

A Christmas Poem I Didn't Read Till Now.

"My dog's a Democrat"

My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise.

For this He pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep.

If He makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free.

He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day.

I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head, Holy S#!t, my dog is a Democrat!

I wonder why no one ever thought to ask the question? I just assumed that increasing the production of carbon dioxide meant that the amount of this gas in the atmosphere would increase. It turns out not to be true.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2009) — Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere....

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

A Study In Scarlet Ink

From commenter Adjoran at Moe Lane on why the NRSCC is not throwing its financial support to Scott Brown in the Massachusetts senatorial race:

Besides, the NRSCC’s specialty is picking the highest-possible-profile guaranteed losing candidate in any given state contest and throwing large bundles of cash at them, not in supporting conservatives in blue states.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

"All the lazy asses are outside shooting their guns off"

Just remember the 8:1 rule. Radical Islamic terrorism will kill from 8 to 10 Muslims for every non-Muslim in order to maintain control over the population. In Iraq the pattern was the same. Thousands of Iraqis, nearly all of them Muslim, were killed by al-Qaeda or other militant groups....The main idea, as you can guess, is to provide an object lesson in what happens to people who even think of crossing the Taliban. The Nazis, the FLN and the NVA would have understood perfectly. If they can maintain control over the population then all they have to do is wait for their enemies to tire and give up.

Changing America’s Legal System To Gain Foreign Approval

In the last year we have seen the Obama administration, the civil liberties movement (read ACLU) and the MSM move in the direction of changing our legal system to make it more palatable to what may be called “International Liberalism.” Exhibit “A” is the decision to “try” Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal court. I put quotes around the word “try” because we are assured that no matter what the court’s decision is, he will not be released. If so, we have the interesting spectacle of the beginning of high profile show trials in the US; one in which the punishment is announced before the verdict.

Ignoring the announcement of indefinite detention before the trail begins, it can be argued that the trial of KSM is – in a certain sense – a move in the direction of offering greater constitutional protections people who get caught up in the American judicial system. The Left is proudly proclaiming that the forms of justice are going to be served even if those people are not American citizens and even if they were waging war … er, “man made catastrophes” …against us.

Make no mistake, one of the reasons the Obama administration is holding this trial is that it wants to curry the favor of the International Liberal community. It's an effort to get the Euro-Left and the Arab world to approve of us.

But the presumption of innocence and the demands for due process go out of the window when the accused are Americans and they work for the hated private security firm Blackwater. Indictments were recently thrown out against five Blackwater guards involved in a shooting in Iraq as they were escorting and guarding American diplomats. So what’s the NY Times headline?

But back to the NY Times, we are told in this “storytorial” a few things that are rather laughable.

Many Iraqis also viewed the prosecution of the guards as a test case of American democratic principles, which have not been wholeheartedly embraced, and in particular of the fairness of the American judicial system.

This is now going to be the focus of the story: Iraqi reaction to American law. Iraqis are now judges of America’s role as a democracy. If we don't convict the Blackwater guards Iraqi cabdrivers and policemen will lose faith in the American judicial system. I wonder what the Iraqis make of the OJ Simpson trial or the dismissal of the charges against Obama associate Bill Ayers? Should we ask?

The ruling on Thursday appeared to confirm the feelings of some that their skepticism had been justified. For Iraqis directly affected by the violence, the result was incomprehensible.

Some victims and their families said they did not understand how charges could have been dropped despite what they regarded as overwhelming evidence.

As Obama would say, this is a teachable moment. Perhaps someone from the NY Times can explain the rules of evidence that American courts have created to the overwhelming applause of people who work for the NY Times and the ACLU.

The Times reporters find several gunshot victims who express their outrage at the court decision. It seems that in the case of the Blackwater guards American legal rules should not apply if it makes Iraqis unhappy. Perhaps it’s time to schedule another show trial, after the one for KSM. This time five Blackwater guards can be in the dock with a pre-determined punishment to meet Iraqi legal standards. We know what the verdict will be, the trial will come later. The Euro-Left and the Arab world will love us more. The ACLU will applaud.

A Muslim immigrant opened fire and killed five people in Finland today before turning the gun on himself.

The killer appears to be from Kosovo. And from American Power we gets lots of links that indicate that the killer has made a habit of killing.

Ibrahim Shkupolli is a UCK/KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army - i.e. muslim terrorists) veteran. He killed 32 Serb civilians in the Qela village in 1997. Also fought against Serb police. He is wanted in Serbia already since 1995.

I do not expect this story to get much attention from the American press which shows the value of the Internet as a news medium. It also brings out the global reach of Islam as a religion of violence.

David Loves Janet

Most Americans got their first prolonged look at Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, last weekend. After a passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam ignited a concealed fuse as the plane approached Detroit for a landing, apparently intending to blow it up and kill all aboard, it fell to Napolitano to take charge of the federal response.

It came as no surprise to anyone who knows her that Napolitano handled the incident and its aftermath with aplomb. In the years I have known her, she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance. If there is anyone in the administration who embodies President Obama's preference for quiet competence with "no drama," it is Janet Napolitano.

No, this is not a joke. There is no "but..." There is no punch line. This is the Dean of the Washington punditocracy.

"... a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension."

The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack [the Christmas bomber] is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to downplay and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York -- a trifecta of political correctness and image management.

And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over -- that is, if it ever existed.

I believe, along with Dick Cheney, that Obama considers the worldwide Jihad an irritating distraction that forces him to devote time and energy from his primary goal which is the transformation of American society.

Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency — social transformation — the restructuring of American society.

Obama has always been against fighting violent Jihad as a war rather than as a police and criminal issue. He believed that with the end of the war in Iraq and the appeasement of adversaries throughout the world, he would be free to devote his presidency toward a seismic cultural shift to right what he sees as the racial wrongs that America has and is committing. His is essentially a domestic racial and political agenda formed around the ideas fostered by his mentors Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. He is perhaps the most racist President we have had since Woodrow Wilson.

Thanks to Doug Ross for the link. We hope our visitors will come back, stay a while and tell their friends. We need to strengthen the Conservative community. Rush Limbaugh can't do it all by himself. Pray for him and wish him a speedy recovery.